Modeling tools provide a means by which various concepts including business goals, key performance indicators, business rules, and services can be represented. A modeling tool facilitates specification of concept characteristics as well as the relationships between those concepts. Many modeling tools are based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML). The UML includes a set of standard modeling concepts like class, interface, package, and component, which are included as part of a standard metamodel, also known as the “UML metamodel”.
The UML metamodel can be extended to additional concepts using a UML profile. A UML profile allows extension of the standard UML metamodel for a particularized purpose, such as for a particular technology, like a service-oriented architecture, or a particular industry, as examples. An individual extension to the standard UML metamodel is known as a stereotype, and one or more stereotypes defining one or more extensions to the UML metamodel are included in the UML profile. As examples, a stereotype “Business Goal” extends UML's ‘class’, and a stereotype “Service” extends UML's ‘interface’.
Stereotype extensions to the UML metamodel are important when modeling elements created in specialized modeling tools, such as elements created in a requirements management tool for service modeling. A requirements management tool enables specification of requirements for model concepts (such as Business Goals, and Key Performance Indicators), as well as recognition and representation of nesting and traceability relationships between the elements representing these concepts in the requirements management tool. When modeling elements from a specialized modeling tool, such as requirement elements of a requirements management tool, in a different modeling environment, such as a UML-based modeling environment, the standard UML metamodel may not contain the proper facilities for modeling these requirements management tool elements, which are likely particularized to a specific industry or purpose. Stereotypes, therefore, enable the extension of the UML metamodel to accommodate concepts from the requirements management tool. As an example, stereotypes may be specified for business goals, key performance indicators, and business rules (concepts in a requirements management tool), so that these concepts can be modeled in the UML-based modeling tool.